Your Life Needs More Colour
by Randomer101
Summary: "I get up, I shower, I go to work, I work all day, I go home, I go to sleep". For Larry Needlemeyer, this was all he knew. It was boring, mundane and grey. Until one day, he met Steve Small, someone with almost too much colour to handle. After years of living without colour, perhaps this mellow new-ager would change Larry's life? (LarryXSteve/Smallarry/Stevelmeyer)
1. The Delivery

"And would you like to leave a tip t- oh."

The sound of the phone on the other end of the line quickly slamming down cut off the cashier's sentence, and he sighed wearily as the twelfth order of his shift that night refused to consider leaving any form of gratuity for his customer service. After calling back to the kitchen with the customer's order, he returned to resting his elbows on the pizza shop's front counter, chin propped on his palms as he waited for either the shrill ring of the phone to pierce through the air again, or the even shriller voice of an eat-in customer ordering their meal.  
Larry Needlemeyer had never wanted this life, living through shift after shift at countless different jobs, be it pizza store cashier, police accountant, video store clerk or anything else potentially mundane and low-paying. It was gruelling, and the small paycheques never made up for how much effort he put in minute after boring minute.

Larry's life was like his skin - dull grey.

The sounds of the kitchen staff busily preparing the most recent order clanked and sizzled behind him, the only distraction from the slow agonising tick of the wall clock as he waited for his sixth job of that day to come to an end.  
 _"It's 07:36pm... Only an hour and twenty-four minutes before I can go to my shift at the gas station..."_ Larry thought to himself, watching one of his colleagues absentmindedly as they quickly zoomed away on a company bike to deliver the latest order. It soon went quiet again, the idle chatter of the chefs and the ticking of the clock echoing through the pizza shop.

Until the phone bursted into life with its shrill tone, causing Larry to jump in surprise and nearly drop the receiver in his hastiness as he answered, his slightly nasally voice instinctively snapping into its retail tone.  
"Hello, Fervidus Pizza, may I take your order please?"

"Yeah, hello? I'd like to make an order for a, um.. a vegetarian margarita pizza, please, regular sized."

The voice that greeted Larry was one he wasn't familiar with, which was surprising to say the least; considering he worked at almost every store in Elmore, he had come across most of the town's citizens at one point or another in his career, and so often recognised regular customers simply by their voices. However, this one wasn't a voice he was used to.  
The stranger sounded softly spoken, with a slightly southern twang to their speech and a definite hippyish vibe. What struck Larry as particularly peculiar was that they felt the need to specify a margarita pizza order as vegetarian, especially seeing as that was pretty much guaranteed with anything that only really consisted of bread, cheese and tomatoes. However, 'the customer is always right', so he forced himself to ignore it and instead politely continued to take the necessary details, relaying the order back to the chefs as he did so.  
"One regular margarita, coming right up. Is that for delivery or collection, sir?"

"Oh, delivery, if that's alright. I don't think I could make it out for collection tonight..."

 _"Ah, damn it,"_ Larry thought, grimacing slightly, _"_ _the delivery boy just left; that means I'll have to do it instead..."  
_ "Yes, sir, that's fine. Which address would you like it delivered to?"

"1008 Elm Street. Look for the mint-green house with the wind-chimes on the front porch."

Larry quickly pulled out a pen and scrawled the address down on a notepad, before intervening with another question. "And who am I delivering this to, sir?"

"Oh, um, Steve Small."

 _"... Nope. Never heard of him."_ Larry shrugged as he tore off the sheet of paper from his notepad and slipped it into his pocket.  
"Alright, Mr Small, your order should be there in approximately 15 minutes."

"Cool, man; that's some fast service."

"And that will be $15..." He continued, totting up the amount on his cash register, before pausing. This was the moment where almost every other customer either excused themselves awkwardly or outright slammed the phone down. He was not looking forward to whatever reaction his mandatory question would cause this time.  
"And... W-would you like to leave a tip too, sir?"

"Hm..? Oh, yeah, sure. What's 15% of $15...?"

Larry's eyes widened in surprise, and he nearly forgot to respond to the customer's question due to the fact that, for the first time in a long while, someone had actually bothered to tip him.  
"I-I-It's $2.25, sir..."

"Awesome, add that to my bill then. I'll see you in 15, man."

And with that, the phone clicked to a low buzzing silence, leaving the cashier pleasantly stunned. It wasn't until the chefs chimed the bell and slid the boxed order towards him that he snapped out of his daze.  
 _"Get yourself together, Laurence. It's only $2.25. Besides, it's not irregular for someone to leave a tip. Uncommon, yes, but not abnormal..."_ He thought as he picked up the pizza box and carried it out to one of the store bikes, strapping it to the back. He then swung his leg over the bike seat, sitting down and starting the ignition, before pulling out of the side-alley and starting to make his way towards Elm Street.  
However, no amount of rationalisation could shake the strange sense of anticipation he could feel building inside him as he neared his destination. A small part of him was excited to meet this unfamiliar customer; Larry didn't get much excitement in his line of work.

* * *

"Yep. Those are definitely wind chimes."  
Larry raised a brow slightly as he looked at the gently tinkling decor hanging around the front porch of the house. He had been able to hear where he was meant to go before he had even finished parking his bike, and now, standing on the welcome mat, his speculative ideas over what the customer may be like only continued to grow.  
He cleared his throat slightly, shifting the pizza box in his grip as he outstretched a grey hand to press the doorbell, the stereotypical 'ding-dong' audible through the door. After a few moments of silence, he could hear muffled footsteps, until the door swung open.

It was like Larry had been punched in the face with colour.

The man was tall, two-dimensional, and covered in puffy white fur, making him uncannily resemble a cloud; a small amount of it, Larry noticed, was tied back in a ponytail behind his head. His clothes, however, were even more striking. Black flares with pink hems and stitching stretched down to bright yellow and blue sandals, whilst a psychedelic tie-dye shirt threatened to burn Larry's retinas. Even the man's eyes were bright, green with red pupils, like olives.  
Compared to Larry's own standard Fervidus Pizza uniform, three-dimensional body and grey rocky skin, this man looked like he could have been born out of a rainbow.

After a second or two, Larry remembered that he actually had a job to do, and greeted the new customer with a polite smile.  
"Hello, sir. Pizza delivery for a Mr Steve Small..?"

The tall man smiled, and spoke in that same relaxed voice that Larry had heard on the phone 15 minutes ago.  
"Yeah, that's me. You weren't lying when you said 15 minutes, huh? Impressive work," he squinted slightly as his eyes travelled over the shorter man's nametag, "Larry."

"Oh, uh, th-thank you. Here's your order, sir, a regular margarita."  
Larry wasn't sure why he was stuttering, but assumed it was because he wasn't accustomed to receiving compliments, particularly not from customers. He tried to clear his mind and stay on task. "That will be $15 dollars, plus the $2.25 gratuity."

"Oh, yeah, sure..." Steve slipped a hand into his back pocket and pulled out a $20 bill, handing it over to the thin rock man, who returned the necessary change before handing over the boxed order.

"Aaand... There we go. Thank you for choosing Fervidus Pizza." Larry chimed politely before turning to leave.

"Oh, you're going?"

This question took him off guard, and he blinked, before turning around to look at the tall hippyish customer leaning against the doorframe.  
"... Well, sir, it's not exactly common practise for the deliverer to continue to lurk around the customer's house after having made the delivery."

"Hm, I guess. You don't want any pizza, though? I'm kinda on my own, and I hate to waste food; it's ungrateful and bad for your karma, y'know?"

How could he respond? He had never been in this situation before. Eating a customer's pizza was completely against the rules, of course, but what if they were offering? He was hungry, and he hadn't eaten since breakfast...  
 _"No, Laurence. Don't be unprofessional. Politely decline and leave."_ He mentally scolded himself for even considering it, before answering.  
"Oh... Well, thank you for the offer, Mr Small, but I'm going to have to decline. You see, I'm still on duty, and I won't have finished working until 11pm today, so I couldn't. Sorry."

Steve raised a brow, before shrugging and smiling casually at him. "Hey, no worries, man. You just looked stressed out, that's all. Bad vibes."

"Um... Yes, I guess...? Anyway, have a good evening, sir." Larry smiled sheepishly before turning for the second time to leave, awkwardly walking down the driveway towards his bike.

"You have a good one too, Larry. Drive safe!" With a smile, Steve closed the door, the chimes tinkling softly due to the gust of air the motion created.

Larry wasn't sure how to react as he got onto his bike and started the ignition, looking over at the house one last time before revving the engine and beginning his journey back to the store. A customer had never been so friendly towards him before, let alone offered him some of their food.  
 _"Steve Small... Well, he's either perceptive, charitable or a complete nutburger. Based off of what he was wearing, I'm tempted to say the latter..."_ Larry rolled his eyes slightly, switching lanes as he turned back down the street that the pizza parlour was on.

He didn't have time to think about that peculiar encounter, anyway; he still had around 4 hours of work left to do.

* * *

Sitting alone in his living room, incense and infusers placed here and there on shelves, mantelpieces and windowsills, Steve allowed himself to zone out slightly as he munched through a slice of pizza.  
He had only ordered it on a spur of the moment to cure a very sudden case of 'the munchies' brought on by one of his slightly more transgressive recreational activities, namely smoking a blunt. Usually he would be more picky about his food, preferring organic produce to the potentially chemically altered ingredients of fast food, but his hunger had been particularly crippling; he had nearly keeled over by the time he had typed the number into the phone. No wonder he had said he was unable to make it out for a collection that night.

His thoughts began to travel to the deliverer of his meal; he had been a little shorter than him, and looked like he was made entirely out of stone. He had also been alarmingly thin, as though he too might've fainted at any moment.  
 _"And he said he wouldn't finish working until 11pm... Geez. The poor guy looked totally stressed out. I kind of feel bad that I wasn't more insistent about giving him some of my food..."_

Steve chewed thoughtfully as his mind replayed the events from earlier, before he swallowed and started another slice.  
 _"... Maybe if I see him again, I can give him some relaxation tips. People need to learn to chill; excess cortisol can upset your internal balance. Larry was his name, right? I'll remember that for when I see him next..."_

Little did he know that he would be seeing Larry far sooner than either of them could have anticipated.

* * *

 **AN - Well, I love this ship, and I fancied having a go at writing a proper multi-chaptered fanfiction about how they met and grew close to each other. I can't say that updates will be very frequent or regular; this is really something I'm doing just in my spare time, of which I do not have much.**  
 **A fun little piece of trivia about this story is that it is inspired by 'Rainbow Veins' by Owl City. I personally think it works as a good couple song for them, and the theme of colour should hopefully be consistent throughout the story too. Go and give the song a listen; it's good, I promise.**


	2. The Puncture

Elmore had always been a busy and hectic place. There was no denying that the town was a hub of activity, with something always happening somewhere or another. The biggest event currently occurring, however, was the rebuilding of a particular highway bridge - a series of confusing and dramatic events had led to the destruction of some of the supporting beams, with the resulting maintenance work cutting off many of the town's regular transportation routes. Of course, by now, most of Elmore's residents and visitors were used to the strange goings on that occurred there, and thus many approached these things with a somewhat lax attitude. It was this very nonchalance, however, that caused a construction worker to idly ignore a bump in the road, and pay no heed to the clatter of something falling off of the back of their truck as they made their morning commute to the building site.

Of course, when a nail is left point-up in the middle of a road, accidents are bound to happen.

* * *

Larry sighed, his grip on the steering wheel tightening as he manoeuvred his way through the early morning traffic. His eyes felt heavy, but the empty bottles of 5-hour-energy drink neatly grouped up on the passenger seat next to him sang testament to his will to stay awake. The last thing he had needed this morning was an emergency call at the mechanics he worked at for a supposed 'breakdown', one that had his boss kicking him out the door and into the recovery vehicle.

"Tsch... it's probably just a flat tyre. I bet it's not even that bad," he mumbled, a slight bitter edge creeping into his tone as he awkwardly tried to overtake a terribly senile driver in the lane in front of him.

A few more minutes of driving had him nearing the location of the morning's distress call; a small non-residential road that, at this time of day, was relatively quiet. Some trees lined the pavement, but other than that, it was unremarkable.

That is, except for the brightly coloured van that was leaning awkwardly against the curb, hazard lights flashing as it slumped to one side. Larry blinked a little through his morning haze, wondering if he was hallucinating whilst he idly pulled to a stop near the break down; quickly turning off the ignition, he stepped out of the recovery vehicle and made his way over, his focus entirely drawn to the stationary van.

It was like something out of a drug-fuelled trip. Airbrushed images of unicorns and cryptids were scattered across the purple paintwork, a healthy smattering of stars and rainbows in their wake; the giant multicoloured 'BELIEVE' font drifting across the front hood really brought the image home, though. It was entirely tacky, and practically screamed 'new-age hippy'.

"What the what..? How... how many of those 5-hour-energy things did I have..!?" he muttered, eyes wide as he circled the vehicle. The terrible effigies covering it were so eye-wateringly distracting that he almost missed the very obvious punctured tyre on the front left wheel, a large metal nail sticking precariously out of the rubber. Spotting the cause of the problem made him double back and crouch down, checking the damage at eye level.

 _"Hm. It's bad, but not terrible..."_ he thought, squinting a little before standing up straight once more and glancing around. It only then struck him, however, that he was totally alone. Where on earth was the-

"Hello? Hello! Are- are you the mechanic?"

The sudden voice caused Larry to jump almost a foot in the air, whirling around in shock as the relative silence of the quiet road was broken. He scanned the thin tree line and saw no-one, a frown settling over his features as he turned back around and glanced in through the window to see if the driver was perhaps inside the vehicle. He found no-one, however, and hummed a little in confusion. That is, until the voice called out once more.

"Excuse me? Hi! Up here!"

He startled again, this time turning and looking up at the overhanging branches above him. There, a good 20 feet in the air, was the driver in question, clinging precariously to a branch. Larry recognised him instantly, from his tie dye attire and white fluff, as the unusual customer from a few days ago, but the shock of seeing someone up there was more than enough to distract him from that thought for now.

"Wh-what?! Mr Small...? How- why-"

"Do you have a ladder?"

"Y-yes, but why? Are you stuck..?"

"Yeah. I'm stuck."

"What?! How did you even get up there?!"

The mechanic could feel his nerves frazzling by the second, eyes wide with panic as he looked up at his client, who had just broken out into gentle and entirely too casual laugher.

"Ahaha, well, it's a pretty funny story. I was waiting for you to arrive, when all of a sudden I saw a pigeon. I thought it looked kinda lonely, and maybe it might benefit from my company. So, naturally, I climbed up here to say hi, but I must've spooked the little guy, because it fluttered off over that way. Next thing I know, I can't figure out how to get down! Crazy, right?"

It was safe to say that Larry's expression was a healthy mixture of bewildered and perplexed. A pigeon? He had climbed up after a pigeon?! It was insanity. However, he couldn't stand there staring up at him in confusion forever, so he shook his head and attempted to clear his thoughts.

"You- you called about an accident, right? Is this your, uh... your van?"

Steve laughed again and nodded, before pointing at the crazily coloured van.

"Yeah! That's Janice!"

"... Janice. Your van is called Janice..." Larry deadpanned slightly, before laughing incredulously, "of course it's called Janice! Why wouldn't it be?"

"So can you help me out?" Steve smiled, leaning his fluffy cheek against the branch he was currently clinging to.

Larry paused his musings, took a deep breath to clear his head once more, before calling up to the client again.

"I'll do my best, sir."

* * *

It took a total of 9 minutes and 36 seconds to finally get Steve out of the tree; his thick fur and loose-ended jeans had a terrible habit of snagging on every branch and twig nearby, and his regular choice of footwear was certainly not the most suited for ladder climbing. In retrospect, it's a miracle that he even managed to climb up there in the first place. However, once he was finally back on the ground, he grinned and promptly grabbed Larry by the arms, pulling him into a tight hug.

"Oh you're a lifesaver, man! I thought I was gonna be up there for hours!"

The shorter man would have replied to this statement, had he not just frozen, stiffening to match his rocklike exterior as the embrace took him totally off guard. He could feel his cheeks burning as he was pressed against his client's chest, and was just about to shove him away when, luckily, the hug ended as soon as it began. He quickly shuffled a few steps backwards, very uncomfortable with the proximity that had just been forced upon him, brows furrowed in displeasure. Mr Small, however, seemed oblivious to Larry's reaction, his focus now turned to his precious van.

"Janice! Oh, are you okay?" he crooned, pressing his hands to the airbrushed side panels as though reunited with a long lost family member.

 _"He... he's a weirdo. I knew it..."_ Larry thought, looking Mr Small up and down uncomfortably, before turning to pack up the ladder and return it to his own vehicle. Once it was successfully stowed away, he started to root around in the van's tool compartment for the right equipment to deal with the punctured tyre, his focus threatening to drift away from the task at hand due to the absurdity of the situation.

"Ooh, that's a lot of stuff you've got in there."

He jolted in surprise as Mr Small's voice suddenly sounded from right next to him, causing him to bump his head on the roof of the compartment.

"Ow-! Sir, um, c-could you maybe refrain from sneaking up on me?" he winced, rubbing the back of his head as he turned to face his curious companion. Steve laughed a little at the reaction, but his expression was apologetic, and he took a step back.

"Whoops, sorry about that! Didn't mean to scare you, haha!"

"You didn't scare me, sir; you just surprised me," he sighed, reaching into the compartment once more and grabbing the necessary tools to start his repair work, before making his way over to 'Janice'.

"Oh, well, I didn't mean to surprise you either. Can I help at all?" Steve spoke calmly as he followed after the mechanic.

"No, sir, it's fine. I'll have this tyre changed in no time; just make yourself comfortable." Larry said in his default customer-service tone as he knelt down on the tarmac, starting to place wheel wedges down to begin his job.

"Okie dokie, I'll let you get on with it," Steve said casually, sitting himself down cross-legged on the pavement nearby. He had recognised the rock man as soon as he'd stepped out of the car, and was a little surprised to see him working as a mechanic.

 _"Wasn't he a pizza delivery guy? Maybe he works two jobs? That would definitely explain his nervousness; guy still looks super stressed..."_ he pondered as the minutes ticked by, watching the mechanic work idly as he waited. And waited. And waited...

* * *

At some point, he must've fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew, he was being hesitantly nudged awake.

"Uh, sir? Your van is fixed. Sir? ...Mr Small, wake up."

The next nudge was a little less hesitant, and he jolted upright, green and red eyes flickering open quickly as he regained consciousness.

"Wha..? Oh.. oh! You fixed Janice!" Steve quickly got to his feet, smiling brightly at his repaired van, before turning to Larry with a joyful expression.

"Well, yes, of course; that is my job, sir-" he wasn't able to finish his sentence as he was pulled into another hug, freezing up again before he was released.

"I can't thank you enough, Larry!" Steve said, his tone bright and cheerful as he looked at the mechanic, before fishing into his back pocket to grab his wallet to pay. The mechanic in question would have usually grabbed the card reader from the pocket of his overalls, but he was unusually still, looking a little dumbfounded.

 _"He... remembered my name?"_ he blinked as the thought crossed his mind, surprised that this evidently eccentric character would be bothered to remember something so menial. However, he quickly realised that he was just standing there like an idiot, and shook himself out of it, clearing his throat as he tallied up the price. Steve was actually a little impressed by how quickly Larry completed the process, not even having to look at the buttons as he pressed them - at this point, it was basically muscle memory.

"Aaand... there. Finished and paid for," Larry smiled, his tone professional and chipper once again as he handed Mr Small's card back to him, before pocketing the reader, continuing to talk as he did so, "you should be all ready to get back on the road now. Thank you for choosing Elmore Mechanics-"

"Do I need to pay you for the ladder thing?"

Larry's mandatory customer spiel was cut off by this surprising question, and he raised a brow in confusion.

"What...? N-no, you don't need to pay me for that. It was common decency to help you out of that tree, sir."

Steve laughed at Larry's sudden change in tone, before smiling warmly at him, his own voice amicable as he spoke.

"Well, that's really great of you, honestly. People can be so uncharitable these days!" he shrugged, before turning to go. He paused when he got to the door of his van, and turned back to look at the mechanic with a smile, "it was good seeing you again, man! I hope we bump into each other soon!"

Larry was thrown off by this friendly comment, so much so that he stuttered for a good 5 seconds before thinking of what to say.

"Y-yes, but hopefully under different circumstances...!"

Mr Small's smile only grew when he heard this, and he sent Larry a thumbs up before stepping into his van and starting the ignition. The engine stuttered a little, before blurting to life, and soon the multicoloured van had driven away, leaving Larry standing awkwardly in the road. He didn't even know why he was still standing there - perhaps out of fear that the odd customer would crash within five seconds of being behind the wheel again - but he shook himself out of his odd stupor quickly, wandering back to the recovery vehicle. After checking the equipment, and finding it all to be in order, he placed himself back behind the wheel once more.

His eyes travelled to the clock on his dashboard. It had, apparently, only been 45 minutes. Why did it feel like it had been longer? He sighed and put it down to the confusion of it all and his lingering drowsiness, which he fought back as he started the engine and began his return journey to the mechanic's shop.

After all, the day had only just begun.

* * *

 **AN- Hello everyone! Thank you so much for your kind reviews and interest in this story - your patience is greatly appreciated. I can only apologise that it has taken me SUCH a long time to get back into writing this, but I have always intended to finish it - I have no idea how long it will be, or how long that will take me, but I promise to do my best.**

 **Stay cool, stay determined, and stay colourful!**


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